Lord of The Ring
January/February 2005
photograph ©Mark Morosse
In May 1864, this grand piano was delivered to the villa near Munich where Richard Wagner was living. The rosewood-framed instrument was lent by its maker, Carl Bechstein, whose pianos -- technically advanced for their time -- were among the finest in the world. It is now in Yale's Collection of Musical Instruments.
Wagner immediately wrote to thank Bechstein: "I have just now welcomed into my studio the splendid present, your beautiful grand piano, that you so generously sent to me . the noble and beautiful instrument that I require for my work." He kept the piano for 10 years, the period in which he completed Die Meistersinger and Gotterdammerung. Wagner often recruited Franz Liszt and Liszt's students to play his newest compositions on this piano for King Ludwig II of Bavaria and other patrons, with Wagner himself singing the voice parts. In all likelihood, the final acts in The Ring were first played on this instrument.
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